NCAA Revises Analysis of High School Courses

In response to criticisms and confusion about the way it determines
athletic eligibility, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has
revamped its system for evaluating high school courses.

The revised procedure, called "A New Game Plan," aims to simplify
the requirements placed on high schools in submitting course
descriptions to the Overland Park, Kan.-based organization. The NCAA's
Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse decides which high school courses can
count toward an incoming freshman's eligibility to compete in college
sports.

But the NCAA's efforts have not won over some of its critics in
precollegiate education, who contend that the membership organization
of colleges and universities has no business evaluating high school
curricula in the first place.

The NCAA's "heart was in the right place" for demanding academic
rigor for its athletes, said Terry Downen, the principal of the
1,640-student North High School in Eau Claire, Wis. "But to require us
to submit for every new course a document that has 16 questions and
certifies [its] rigor is not something I care to spend time on, or that
I care to have my staff spend time on," Mr. Downen said.

"The whole question is whether they're able to demand legitimately
from high schools this kind of information."

Mr. Downen also said that the NCAA's course-approval process does
not appear to be logical. The association accepted an English course
that his high school offers, he said, but turned down the exact same
course that another high school in Eau Claire teaches.

Kathryn M. Reith, a spokeswoman for the NCAA, said last week that
high schools, at least so far, appear to have responded positively to
the new process.

"We certainly don't expect [the critics] to receive a nice package
and say, 'The NCAA has changed,' " she said. "But what that package
does represent is that a lot of thought has gone into the
process."

Public Relations Tool?

The NCAA's Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse came under intense
scrutiny last fall with several well-publicized cases of high academic
achievers' being denied athletic eligibility.

The "New Game Plan," sent in February to more than 25,000 high
school counselors, sets a timetable by which high schools must submit
descriptions for any new or not previously approved courses, and
provides course-submission forms for several subject areas.

Under the old system, if the clearinghouse did not approve a course,
the high school had to find an NCAA member college or university to
appeal on its behalf before the association's academic-requirements
committee.

Now, the courses that the clearinghouse does not approve will be
sent automatically to the committee for additional review. Once the
committee rules on whether a course qualifies as a required "core
course," the NCAA will not allow any other appeal.

"We're trying to get everybody into the mind-set of, let's take care
of this now, and not wait until there is a problem," Ms. Reith
said.

But Joe Nathan, the director of the Center for School Change at the
University of Minnesota, which helps teams of parents and educators
transform public schools, said that he felt the whole process was
"ludicrous."

"First of all, this is an astonishing waste of high schools' time;
also, they are placing enormous barriers in the way of high schools
that are trying to do good things for students," said Mr. Nathan, whose
office has come to serve as a de facto clearinghouse for parents and
students stymied by the NCAA rules.

Jon Larson, a counselor at La Crescent High School in La Crescent,
Minn., said that educators, not the NCAA, should be judging whether a
course can be considered college preparatory.

"That packet is just a public relations tool by the NCAA, just to
make things go more smoothly, but the real issue is beneath that," said
Mr. Larson, who is also the president of the Minnesota School
Counselors Association.

Both Mr. Larson's association and the Minnesota state board of
education adopted resolutions last month opposing the NCAA's policy and
practices in "establishing appropriate standards for postsecondary
athletic-scholarship eligibility."

High schools that have not received ''New Game Plan'' packets can
call the clearinghouse at (319) 337-1492.